Stewart Brand: How Buildings Learn – Flow

Back in 1997 Stewart Brand – initiator and publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog – turned his book How Buildings Learn into a television series. Not surprisingly the book greatly inspired interaction designers and had its impact on human centered design in computing. (Apparently and sadly the impact on architecture wasn’t that big everywhere)

So now ditch your plans to watch some late-night show and watch the first part instead:

Key Takeaways

“Architects don’t want change in their buildings and so they make it as difficult as possible”

Architects are too focused on their art and and not enough on the users they build for

Architecture has a fixed and no growth mindset (“Never look back – it’s too discouraging”)